What was the final change that made plebeians equal citizens?

Answer 1

The conflict between patricians and plebeians was not about equal citizenship. The citizen status was the same for all Roman citizens. What the rich plebeians fought for was access to the offices of state and the senate, and power-sharing with the patricians who had monopolised the mentioned positions and political power at the beginning of the Republic. This was a gradual process. Some landmarks were:

· In 367 BC the lex (law) Licinia-Sextia law made the plebeians eligible to one of the two posts of consul (the two annually elected heads of the city and the army).

· In 356 BC the first plebeian dictator was appointed

· In 351 BC the first plebeian censor was elected

· In 342 BC the lex Genucia established that every year one of the two consuls had to be a plebeian.

· In 339 BC the lex Publilia law made laws passed by the vote of the plebeian council (plebiscites) binding on all citizens, including the patricians and not only on the plebeians. Another lex Publilia established that one of the censors had to be a plebeian.

· In 336 BC the first plebeian praetor (chief justice) was elected.

· In 330 BC the plebeians were given access to two important priestly colleges

· In 287 BC the lex Hortensia ruled that the senate could issue a ruling against a law of the ground of technicalities (sentatum consultum) before a bill was submitted to the vote of the plebeian council instead of after the vote. This removed the senate's power to obstruct laws passed by the plebeians.

The last law in the list is seen by historians as the step that ended the conflict between rich plebeians and patricians (the Conflict of the Orders). At that point the rich plebeians had gained access to the offices of state and attained power-sharing with the patricians. They were co-opted into a patrician-plebeian oligarchy.

Wilts power was the concern of the rich plebeians. the concerns of the poor plebeians were different. Their agitations were connected to their economic grievances, especially endemic indebtedness and shortages of land for poor peasants. The poor were the driving force of the plebeian movement. The rich plebeians became the leaders of this movement. They used it to press for power-sharing. When they obtained this, they turned their backs of the concerns of the poor, which were not addressed properly.